NL West

Astros Broadcasters

2013 marks Bill Brown's 27th season as the club's primary play-by-play voice on television. A veteran of over 30 years of broadcasting MLB games, Bill has been honored several times since the start of the 2011 season.

Bill was presented with the Fred Hartman Award for Long and Meritorious Service at the 2012 Houston Baseball Dinner in February.

He was inducted into the Houston Media Wall of Honor in September of 2011.

He was honored by the Astros with a pregame ceremony in June of 2011, recognizing his 25 seasons with the club.

Brown was honored by the Texas Italian-American Sports Foundation, receiving an award for "outstanding accomplishments as a television broadcaster for the Houston Astros and community service".

He represented the Astros on the fan ballot for the 2012 Ford C. Frick Award.

Bill joined the Astros in 1987 after working as Senior Producer and anchor of the Financial News Network's SCORE program. Prior to that assignment, he was Sports Director of the Sports Time Cable Network, which televised selected games of the Reds, Royals and Cardinals.

He was a finalist for the 2010 National Sportscaster and Sportswriters Association Texas Sportscaster of the Year Award.

Brown spent one year with HSE in Pittsburgh and was the television voice of the Cincinnati Reds from 1976-82.

He was inducted into the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame on November 12, 2004.

Bill is a member of the Advisory Board at Houston Taping for the Blind and has been a volunteer reader for 16 years.

Bill co-wrote two books. The first, My Baseball Journey, A Sportscaster's Story co-authored by Tim Gregg, documents his career and personal influences (2012), and the second, Houston Astros: Deep in the Heart co-authored by Mike Acosta, gives a pictorial history of the Houston Astros (2013).

Brown and his wife, Dianne, reside in Houston. They have one daughter, Allison, and three grandchildren: Luke, 11, Emma Kate, 9, and Caitlynn, 6.

Alan Ashby: TV Broadcaster

Alan Ashby returns to Houston as the primary color analyst and occasional play-by-play voice on television for the 2013 season.

For the past six seasons (2007-12), Ashby had been calling games on radio and television for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Ashby's hiring marks a return to Houston for the popular former Astros player and radio broadcaster.

Ashby spent 11 of his 17 Major League seasons as a catcher with the Astros from 1979-89, during which he was a part of three postseason teams.

From 1998-2006, Ashby worked as the Astros color analyst on radio alongside Hall of Famer Milo Hamilton.

Prior to his broadcasting career, Ashby served as a coach and minor league manager in the Astros farm system.

As part of the club's 50th anniversary celebration in 2012, Ashby was named to the Astros All-Time 25-man roster.

Previously, he was named to the All-Time Astrodome team in 1999, and in 2000 was inducted into the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame.

Ashby compiled a career average of .245 with 90 home runs and 513 RBI in 1370 games, and caught three no-hitters (Ken Forsch, Nolan Ryan, Mike Scott).

Ashby currently resides in Houston. He is married with six children.

Geoff Blum: TV Broadcaster

Geoff Blum, who recently retired after 14 Major League seasons as an infielder (1999-2012), will make the transition from the playing field to the broadcast booth in 2013.

During his playing career, Blum had two stints with the Astros, totaling five seasons in Houston (2002-03, 2008-10).

A switch-hitter, Blum was known as one of the top pinch hitters and utility players in the game, appearing at all four infield positions for nine straight seasons (2000-08). He appeared in the postseason in three seasons (2005-06, 2011).

In 2005, hit a go-ahead solo home run in the 14th inning in Game 3 of the World Series to become the 30th player to homer in his first World Series at-bat.

Geoff and his wife, Kory, have four daughters: Mia Lea and triplets Ava, Audrey and Kayla.

Robert Ford: Radio Broadcaster

Robert Ford was named to the Astros radio broadcast team to work alongside Steve Sparks as the play-by-play commentator on Feb. 13, 2012.

Prior to joining the Astros, Ford had served as the radio pre- and postgame host for Kansas City Royals games on 610 AM KCSP, the Royals flagship station, since 2009.

He has seven years of experience broadcasting minor league baseball, having called over 800 games during stints with the Binghamton Mets, Kalamazoo Kings and Yakima Bears. Ford was twice named Frontier League Broadcaster of the Year (2003 and 2004). He also has extensive play by play experience in college basketball.

He is a 2001 graduate of Syracuse University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism.

Steve Sparks: Radio Broadcaster

Steve Sparks was named to the Astros radio broadcast team to work alongside Robert Ford as the color commentator on Feb. 13, 2012.

Sparks, 47, has served as a pre- and postgame analyst for Astros television games over the last several seasons and also filled in as a color analyst on Astros radio and television broadcasts.

A knuckleballer in his playing days, Sparks pitched in the Major Leagues in parts of nine seasons (1995-2004) for the Brewers, Angels, Tigers, A's and Diamondbacks. His best season was in 2001 while with Detroit when he went 14-9 in 35 appearances (33 starts) with a 3.65 ERA while leading the Majors in complete games with eight. He also tallied a career high in innings pitched (232.0) that season.

Sparks, who resides in Houston, attended Sam Houston State University.

Francisco Romero: Spanish Radio Broadcaster

Francisco Romero enters his sixth season of play-by-play on the Astros Spanish radio network.

Francisco joined the Astros in 2008 after spending five seasons broadcasting Milwaukee Brewers games in Spanish on Telemundo Wisconsin. His Major League broadcasting experience also includes selected Minnesota Twins games over five seasons from 2003-08.

His Major League broadcast debut was for the Arizona Diamondbacks on Telemundo Arizona in 1999, and he spent two years on Diamondbacks broadcasts from 1999-2000.

Other Major League broadcasting experience includes selected games on Spanish Radio with the Cincinnati Reds in 2005. He also spent four seasons as the play-by-play broadcaster and pre- and post-game show producer on Spanish radio broadcasts for the Triple A Tucson Sidewinders of the Pacific Coast League.

Additional sports broadcasting experience includes both football and basketball for the University of Arizona Spanish Radio Network 1999-present, as well as three seasons on the Arizona Cardinals radio halftime report.

A graduate of the University of Arizona, Francisco spent 10 years as the sports anchor for the Telemundo affiliate in Tucson, AZ.

In 2005, Francisco was inducted into his High School Media Hall of Fame, Pueblo High School in Tucson, AZ.

In 2003, the Arizona Daily Star named him as one of the Top 100 Sports Figures of Southern Arizona. He earned a 2004 Emmy Award from the Rocky Mountain Chapter in the sports reporting category.

Alex Treviño: Spanish Radio Broadcaster

Alex Treviño returns for his 18th season of analysis on the Astros Spanish radio network.

A native of Monterrey, Mexico, he spent 13 seasons in the Majors, primarily as a catcher, including the 1988-90 seasons with the Astros. He also spent time with the Mets, Reds, Braves, Giants and Dodgers.

Alex hit a career-high .290 while serving as Houston's backup catcher in 1989 and hit .364 (32x88) in 25 starts.

Alex played in 939 Major League games and had a .249 lifetime average.

He attended the University of Nuevo Leon in Mexico before starting his professional baseball career.